However, AI-powered booking assistants are changing that. These systems guide guests through booking with personalized prompts, tailored room suggestions, and real-time responses to common questions. When booking feels easier, faster, and more relevant, more people complete it.
And it pays off. Hospitality and tourism businesses that invest in customer-centric AI, including smart booking tools, have the potential to grow revenue by up to 25%.
With AI handling the heavy lifting, hotels are turning more website visitors into paying guests without extra staff or third-party fees.
Challenge #3: Repetitive Tasks Drain Staff Time
AI Solution: Internal Agents That Boost Operational Efficiency
Hotels run on routines. Guest check-ins, service updates, team communications, daily reporting. All necessary, all time-consuming. When teams are already stretched thin, these tasks start piling up fast.
AI is now handling the busy work. Internal AI tools can automate simple requests, generate reports, answer staff questions, and surface real-time data, giving teams more time to focus on customer experience, not backend admin.
The industry is investing accordingly. Hotels with 150 rooms or more are now dedicating 10% or more of their IT budgets to AI tools, while 26% of large properties (500+ rooms) are allocating over half of their IT budgets toward AI-enabled solutions.
Challenge #4: Guests Expect Personalization
AI Solution: Real-Time Recommendations and Context-Aware Communication
Guests expect more than one-size-fits-all service. Whether browsing rooms, requesting amenities, or planning their evening, they want options curated to their needs.
For large hotel operations, this level of personalization is tough to deliver manually. Staff can’t feasibly remember every guest’s preferences or respond instantly with tailored suggestions.
However, AI-powered tools can analyze guest profiles, booking history, and real-time behavior to automatically recommend upgrades, highlight relevant amenities, and deliver timely messages throughout the guest journey. These touchpoints enhance the experience and open up new revenue opportunities.
AI helps suggest the right room at the booking stage, prompts guests to add breakfast on day one, or surfaces late checkout as their stay winds down. All of this feels natural to the guest and requires no manual follow-up from staff.
By removing guesswork and automating relevance, AI allows large hotels to deliver the kind of personalized service that used to be reserved for VIPs to every guest, every time.
Challenge #5: Guest Feedback is Underused and Overwhelming
AI Solution: Turning Raw Reviews into Actionable Insights
Every hotel collects feedback through surveys, reviews, and casual conversations. But turning that flood of unstructured information into clear, actionable insights is a significant challenge, especially for larger properties managing input across multiple channels.
Without a system in place, valuable trends get buried in noise. Manual review analysis takes time, and insights are often delayed or too general to act on.
AI makes feedback analysis scalable and instant. Natural language processing (NLP) tools can scan thousands of reviews in seconds, identify sentiment patterns, and highlight recurring issues––whether it’s slow check-ins, food quality, or room cleanliness.
These insights improve guest experience and inform real decisions, from staffing and training to pricing and promotions.
